KEY LIBS BACK INJECTING ROOMS

Heroin injecting centres have won key supporters among the 24 Upper
House Liberal MPs who could make or break the radical plan. Four Upper
House Liberal MPs back a trial of supervised centres and 13 reveal
they are undecided about the State Government's proposal.

A Herald Sun survey of all but one of the 24 Liberal MPs AD whose votes
could decide the fate of heroin injecting rooms AD provides a boost for
the legislation.

The survey places intense pressure on Opposition Leader Denis Napthine
to review his stance with the unveiling of the Drugs, Poisons and
Controlled Substances (Injecting Facilities) Bill today.

Dr Napthine has signalled the Liberal Party will vote down the
Bill.

He said yesterday he felt the plan could worsen the heroin
problem.

"I wonder whether they won't indirectly exacerbate the problem," Dr
Napthine said.

"The party has very severe reservations about these
facilities."

Mixed views within Liberal ranks emerge as controversy rages after
Victoria's first proposed heroin injecting centre was unveiled in
yesterday's Herald Sun.

Wesley Central Mission has been forced to defend its $500,000 centre,
with the Rev. Tim Langley estimating more than 1000 addicts could use
it each week.

Dr Napthine described the centre as obscene yesterday.

With the government able to squeeze the Bill through the Lower House
on the vote of independent Susan Davies, all eyes will turn to the
Liberal-controlled Upper House.

Four Liberal MPs AD Bruce Atkinson, Gerald Ashman, Cameron Boardman and
Andrea Coote AD give qualified backing to the concept of heroin
injecting centres.

But they stress their support does not necessarily include the Bill,
which they have not seen.

Their support is subject to tight policing, compulsory links to
intensive rehabilitation services and widespread community
consultation.

"I think we are dealing with a health problem, and we need to
recognise that and treat it with health solutions," Mr Atkinson, the
MLC for Koonung, said.

"It must be done in conjunction with counselling.

"As long as they are part of a broader package, then a trial is a
valid response."

Ms Coote, the MLC for Monash, said she had concerns about policing and
location issues, but "anything that saves a life I would agree to".

Most of the undecided MPs said they were waiting on details of the
Bill and more feedback from electorates. Almost all of those surveyed
raised concerns about policing.

Liberal MPs will not be offered a conscience vote on the Bill, and
will be bound by the party's decision, which could be announced as
early as today.

Opposition health spokesman Robert Doyle said Labor's unveiling of
drug legislation was "crunch time" and the Liberals, with the power to
pass or reject the laws, would make clear their stance.

"(Thursday) is a day where we expect those specific things to be spelt
out and then yes, we can join the debate in a very specific way," he
said.

"We can come back to you and say we support or we oppose the whole
concept of an injecting room. And it may well be that there is an
intermediary ground."

Mr Langley agreed there was a good chance the Wesley Central Mission's
clinic might not open, but dismissed Dr Napthine's claim it was obscene.

"What's obscene is the 30 per cent increase in the number of young
Victorians who died last year of a heroin overdose," Mr Langley said.

"What price a life? If one of my children was one of the 75 overdoses
we have dealt with since last October I would say $500,000 was cheap."

Mr Doyle said the rooms appeared to contravene guidelines put forward
in the Penington report, which stipulated sites should not be on a
major trading strip.

"What we have down the road is a ready-to-go injecting room and yet it
doesn't seem to fit the general criteria set out by Professor
Penington. "The last thing that I would hope for would be that in some
way those guidelines AD which the rest of us are yet to see AD would be
altered at this late stage ... to include a facility like Wesley's."

He called for the government to today spell out specific rules for the
rooms.

There should be details on how the trial would be evaluated, with
specific measures such as targets for reductions on death rates and
discarded syringes, he said.